BMW 520d Touring 2010 Review

BMW 520d Touring

We liked
>> Interior quality and cargo area
>> Better ride than sedan
>> Better looking than sedan, too

Not so much
>> Less engine than most Australian 5 Series buyers will like
>> Audi now has upper hand in finish

Overall rating: 3.5/5.0
Engine/Drive train/Chassis: 3.5/5.0
Price, Packaging and Practicality: 4.5/5.0
Safety: 3.5/5.0
Behind the wheel: 4.0/5.0
X-factor: 3.5/5.0

About our ratings

Traditionally, carmakers launch a new car by throwing in the biggest engines, fitting the cabins with as many juicy options as they can carry and stuffing massive, camera-friendly wheels and tyres beneath them.

BMW has broken the mould with its 5 Series Touring (that's 'wagon' to you and me) by launching its executive load lugger with just a 2.0-litre turbodiesel and a six-speed manual gearbox. And virtually no cabin fruit whatsoever.

And it's worked.

Instead of fiddling with new toys or (usually) complaining about the ride quality the bigger tyres bring, we just got to appreciate the best looking, best riding and most spacious version of the 5 Series money can buy.

And, what's more, BMW Australia has decided that this is an engine that Australians are ready to buy, even though it's not quite been game enough to announce it with a stick shift.

It's easy enough to figure out where the 5 Series Touring sits in the BMW range. Where the 7 Series is the luxury flagship (and was the first on this architecture), the 5 Series GT is the, umm, something or other and the 5 Series sedan is the technical powerhouse of the group, the Touring is the one that delivers all the prestige and all the practicality.

In Europe, at least, it will outsell the sedan because it's the 'big' man's SUV -- capable of crossing the continent with better handling and better fuel economy while giving away nothing in interior space. While it can't hope to outsell the sedan in Australia, it should find a reasonable following, not least because it's actually far better looking, with its cleaner rear lines and raked fifth door.

But The 5 Touring has a position in the wider world, too, because it has the longest wheelbase of any luxury wagon, which helps to make it look sleeker and lower and also helps its ride.

Mechanically, it's largely similar to the sedan -- though the wheelbase is longer and it rides on the GT's rear air suspension -- but it's eminently more practical. For starters, there's 560 litres of cargo space, full of curry hooks, dividers and practical touches. That can fold out to 1670 litres if you fold the simple-to-flick 40:20:40 rear seat. Or you can mix and match with whatever combination will suit the length and width of the load you're carrying.

So far, so good, because that's all stuff the sedan can't do. It has other tricks in its arsenal as well, because the rear glass opens separately to the tailgate (if you want it to) and the luggage cover automatically closes when the tailgate does.

The real good stuff is inside and it's the first 5 Series that's as good in the back as it is in the front, thanks to an 11-degree backrest angle adjustment range and a touch more legroom.

The 520d's four-cylinder diesel has been seen before, but never carrying this much metal. It's a job it shoulders manfully, too, even if 135kW of power doesn't sound like quite enough to cope with the 1710kg of kerb mass.

While it's never promising to be spritely, it does get along pretty nicely, especially once you're rolling. There is, after all, 380Nm of torque arriving at just 1900rpm (the six-cylinder diesel available in the sedan has 540, which should be enough for anybody) and, while it gets to 100km/h in 8.3 seconds, it feels nicer when you need to punch to get around the traffic.

It's not the smoothest four-cylinder diesel doing the prestige car rounds (Audi's 2.0-litre four pot probably is the pick) and it's not the strongest (the Benz probably is), but it's a good compromise between the two. Though, for Australians accustomed to more punch, it still won't be enough for most.

Get yourself a bigger engine, though, and you're still stuck with the 70-litre fuel tank and you'll be sticking a nozzle in it more frequently. With the 2.0-litre engine, it at least stretches that to a combined 6.2L/100km (we got better than that on the launch), while it officially emits 135 grams of CO2.

The 3.0-litre diesel pushes that out by nearly 20 per cent (though it does have another 45kW).

The 5 Touring's handling isn't as crisp as its three-box brother, but it isn't bad and it never feels like it's almost five metres long. Instead, its wheelbase (32mm shy of three metres) means it feels composed and relaxed and so do you when you're inside it, even when it's doing its 222km/h top speed.

It can fling around bends when it has to and it will do it quickly and with dignity, but the key word for anything to do with the way it eats bad roads is "nonchalance".

Besides that, it carries over much of the interior good and bad parts from the sedan, so it's probably enough to say that it's a good car as it is, even if it doesn't quite go hard enough. With the 3.0-litre diesel or either of its initial straight-six petrol offerings, though, it will be just charming.

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